My most recent order arrived the other day, so I thought Id share one of the prints from it. So here is the strawberry I had printed in Full Colour Sandstone. I think they turned out really well! (loving this material)

Took about 4 iterations to get the model right, turns out strawberries/fruit are quite difficult to get looking correct, I even went as far as to use the Fibonacci sequence to get it looking more 'natural' and to get the spacing/amounts of seeds correct and in the right 'pattern', tricky stuff, but it was a good challenge.
When the sun decides to come out in the coming days, I'm planning to gloss one to see how it turns out. Ive used spray-on gloss a few times on various FCS prints and it generally makes them look much better (not to mention protects them). Will make the strawberry print more shiny like a real strawberry as well, will post images here when its done.

Anyway, more images:

Underside (upped the exposure to see the hollow inside, so the colour is out a bit)

And yes Bart, they *could* be part of a bigger project - my mother has recently started working at a very popular Strawberry farm so I've been throwing some ideas around for business opportunities involving 3D Printing. Will be showing them off there at some stage to see what people think. But its the kind of company thats always a few steps ahead of the curve, so I think theres potential there for them to be interested in the ability to have these kinds of custom objects produced. Will see what happens anyway!

And its a nice sunny day here today, so I'll be getting the first layers of gloss done today.

Ok finally finished glossing one of the strawberries. Took several days, as I expected the FCS material is very absorbent, so it took about 8 coats to get it starting to look shiny. Went easy on the first couple of layers since I didnt want to drown it and have the colours run or something (since FCS doesnt play well with water/liquid) but the last few layers I completely drowned it and luckily had some very hot & dry weather. Applied 2 coats per day.

The results were pretty good, the glossy surface brings out the colours nicely and adds more contrast. Certainly helps show off the details between the seeds nicely, which arent as visible in the non-gloss version, gives it an overall more natural look I think.
But I think Im going to need to find a better way of glossing FCS objects, since 8 coats took quite some time and messing around. I'll be seeing if I can work something else out which will seal the surface better, so only 1-2 coats of gloss are required, something to look into.

Thanks guys.
I will definitely be looking around on that part of the forum, certainly found helpful tips there in the past. Really just need something to seal the object better, before spraying with gloss.

And just another quick update

A 2nd version of the model arrived the other day (initially it was missed/muddled in the original order) Shapeways was good enough to ship a replacement which arrived super fast. Also noticed in the box some little Christmas circle cards & Shapeways stickers which is nice, will have to find some places for those.

So this strawberry has my mothers name on it, to demonstrate that the model can be edited to have names etc on it rather than just being a straight out piece of fruit model. Just trying to show some other potential uses and how flexible 3D printing is, to people who have never seen or more than likely heard of 3D printing.

Really nice, I especially like the second version with your Mother's name on it, looks fantastic. The pictures showing the comparison between a non-varnished version and varnished version was really useful and it showed just how much of a difference it made. Did you use a specific type of varnish?

In regards to saving time:
Did you apply the varnish by brush or spray can?

Maybe a spray can would be quicker (thinner coats so in theory less dry time between each one)?
I've not printed FCS yet, so I can't say that suggestion comes from experience.